'Gangs of Wasseypur' turns nine: Here are some unusual facts
Considered to be a modern classic, the first part of Gangs of Wasseypur had released today in 2012. Nine years later, Anurag Kashyap's take on the gangster genre still continues to entertain us. Its behind-the-camera episodes are also equally interesting. Like, two inverted pistols were used, instead of the usual olive leaves, to represent the film festivals it participated in. Here's more.
Gangs of Wasseypur could have never materialized how we know it, if Kashyap had not retrieved his lost luggage. One airline had misplaced his bag that had the film's script in it, and he had to wait for two days at the airport for it. Loosely based on Dhanbad's real-life gang wars, many places shown in the movie are real locations from Kashyap's life.
One example of an actual location is Sardar Khan's (Manoj Bajpayee) house, which was Kashyap's childhood home. Taking his penchant for realistic depictions a notch higher, he shot the slaughterhouse scene in Part 2 at a real place, and Vipin Sharma (Ehsaan Qureshi) ended up vomiting often. Even Sultan Qureshi (Pankaj Tripathi) was based on a 12-year-old, who butchered a buffalo all by himself.
As viewers know, Sardar had two wives (Nagma Khatoon and Durga), and five sons. We see Danish, Faizal, Perpendicular, and Definite, but never get the name of the fifth son. His name was Parallel. Speaking of parallels, Sardar's death draws a parallel from Sonny Corleone's death in The Godfather. Both Shahid and Faizal get shot by someone outside the frame, in Quentin Tarantino fashion.
Apparently, Kashyap had narrated the roles of Ramadhir Singh and Nasir Chacha to Piyush Mishra and Tigmanshu Dhulia, leaving it on them to decide which character would suit whom. While the final casting was perfect, Dhulia employed an interesting technique to nail old Ramadhir's voice. Before shoots, he would drink chilled water after smoking a bidi to make his voice harsh. Such dedication!
In 2017, it was rated among the top 50 crime movies of the 21st century, in a list compiled by The Playlist. Martin Scorsese heaped praises too. Kashyap, however, held that GoW "ruined" him, because everyone expected him to do the same thing repeatedly.
